The Close Strangers

t w o

The next morning, Mark is awaken by the sound of his alarm which has been ringing for ten minutes straight. It's finally the day that he's been waiting for since his last day in Canada.

Mark loves Canada so much. If he had a choice not to leave that country seven years ago, then he would've done it. Back on that day, Mark who was only a 12 years old kid asked his mother about what he could do to go back living in that country. His mother told him that becoming the representative as a diplomat for Korea in Canada could bring him back again.

She was just joking, but this guy literally followed what his mother said.

Of course, that's not what his goal is now, but that was basically the reason why Mark started to have an interest in International Relations.

Mark goes to the campus with his sisters today. They drop Minhee off in front of the main building of her faculty before going to the building of The Faculty of Social Sciences. Mark will start to drive his own car next week, but throughout this whole week, he will go to the campus with his sisters.

He goes straight to the not-so-crowded cafeteria where his friends are waiting for their first class. The cafeteria of his faculty is quite massive since it has so many departments inside.

But, it's not hard to find where his friends are, especially because he already hears an Australian accent coming from the left side of the room at the time he enters the cafeteria.

Lee Felix, one of his friends who comes from Australia, is laughing out loud with Lucas Wong as they jump around the table where Park Jihoon looking so stressed with himself.

They are probably making fun of Jihoon since Mark could see his pinkish cheek which always shows up when Jihoon is embarrassed when he reaches their table.

"YOO, MARK LEE," Felix gives him a high five before letting him join them on their table.

Mark spots a tray full of food on the table.

"Whose tray is this?" He asks as he points the tray at the time his other friend, Lee Chan, comes back from the restroom.

"That's mine," Chan responds as he takes a seat there.

"Channie, you already ordered this much for breakfast?" Mark asks in disbelief, judging his friend as he points at the tray.

"Shut up before this tray hits your head," Chan replies in annoyance as he pushes Jihoon off the table because he doesn't want to eat with Jihoon's ass beside his food.

Among the five of them, Chan is the most sarcastic one. They know about that since day one they met each other which is only a week ago. Instead of yelling loudly like Felix and Lucas usually do, Chan prefers to use his calm voice to threaten people.

"Lucas, don't you dare before you regret anything after I break your neck," Chan says when Lucas suddenly reaches out his hand to steal Chan's food.

They immediately run to their classroom right after Chan put the last mouthful into his mouth. They only have five minutes left before their first lecture starts. Once they arrived, they take the last empty row for the five of them to sit side by side.

"Bro, do you bring any spare pen?" Lucas asks in a low voice to Mark who is sitting beside him at the time their lecturer comes into the classroom.

Mark turns his head to see Lucas right in his eyes, "Do expect me to say yes?" Mark asks back, causing Lucas to roll his eyes before turning his body to the other side where Chan is sitting.

Mark chuckles before taking out the pen that Marcella gave him right before he got off the car. Lucky him, his sister asked him whether he already brought a pen or not back when they were on their way to the campus which made him realize that he hasn't brought one.